Frontier Forger
by BOL
Summary: The Akras Summoners Hall has already been fighting a losing war against the Gods for years, the arrival of new, unexpectedly powerful enemies turns their fear to desperation to survive. A group of six heroes are tasked with facing down these new foes and saving all mortal life. A more realistic and serious take on the Brave Frontier universe.
1. Frontier Forger

Well, this is my first Brave Frontier fanfiction, I'd been waiting for so long for a Brave Frontier category came out and didn't even realise when it did. So, _bleh bleh bleh_, legal whatever, _bleh_, I don't have the patience to really remember all the legal jargon.

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><p><em>Sefia<em>

Sefia took a sip of coffee, the foam resting on her lips, rubbing her aching brows with her free hand. Her elbows were propped up on her plain white desk, surrounded on all sides by towers of paperwork. She gestured to the girl standing by the door, turquoise haired and with a chirping voice and bubbly eyes, her new assistant.

She realised she couldn't even remember the new girl's name. She sighed, "Go down the list again, tell me the most important ones."

The girl nodded and consulted a clipboard cradled in her arms. She recited musically, "The Atharva Republic requests, cordially, for seven more airships, the Principality of Vriksha requests, cordially, for three more war-golems, and the Sama Kingdom requests, with _utmost_ cordiality, for twelve galleons and eight legions."

Sefia sighed, nursing her headache as she thought over these requests. The war had Akras stretched far enough as it was, to say nothing of the ridiculous needs of the surrounding kingdoms to fuel their own dying fronts against the Gods. Especially the Sama Kingdom, their requests had grown even more incredulous with every passing message.

"Should I reply them that we are unable to help them?" the assistant asked.

"No." Sefia closed her eyes and drew in the air with one finger, muttering in response, "Arrange for five airships to be sent to Atharva, one golem to Vriksha, and to Sama… to Sama… send them nothing, tell them we are stretched thin enough here."

The assistant tried to hide her shock. "Are you sure, ma'am? They sound very desperate."

"I'm sure…" Sefia sighed, "send nothing to them."

Her assistant nodded obediently and scribbled something in her clipboard. Sefia took another sip of scalding coffee, grimacing slightly. "How about internal affairs? Give me Sergio's latest report, security breaches, incursions, damages, everything."

An only slightly less depressing, and much longer, list followed, detailing the entire collection of ill happenings throughout Randall, uncovered espionage attempts, monsters discovered stalking outside the walls, prowling the sewers and the back alleys. But still, it was less trouble than they'd had in months, thanks to the Captain of the Guard, Sergio. And thankful she was, Sefia wasn't sure she could mentally endure this job if it got any worse.

She swirled her cup of coffee around, the foam spinning along the rim. She thought for a moment, before saying, "Tell the Captain to strengthen inspections at checkpoints, whatever it takes to weed out these irate spies, and such, tighten security around the Survey Office and the Admin Office, oh, the Research Labs too. That boy won't let me hear the end of it if we don't."

The assistant nodded, writing something down in her clipboard. "And what of the monsters, ma'am?"

"The monsters," Sefia began, skimming a bit of foam off the top. "Well, get Sergio to double patrols into the forests around the city walls, find that breach in the sewers and plug it up. Oh… and give my regards to the Captain of the Guard, tell Sergio he's done a wonderful job."

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><p><em>Sergio<em>

"Who are you?"

Two men sat across from each other in a depressingly plain, grey room of slate, a mirror covering one whole side wall. One of the seated men was tall and slender, with long black hair tumbling over a blue trench coat, a grim look on his face. The other man didn't look nearly as grim, partly because his face was hidden behind a black helmet with long slits for a visor, armoured in plate metal covered in black scorch marks. He had a cape that might have been red before but was now black with ash and ripped in half, the edges burnt. His gauntlets were shackled and chained to the table.

Sergio, the former of the two, looked at the prisoner and said calmly, "Where do you come from?"

The prisoner sighed and said exasperatedly, "I've said it a dozen times yet you can't seem to understand, _I don't know anything_! I don't know how I got here, who I am, who you are, I don't have a clue. _You_ probably know more about me than I do!"

Sergio sat back in his uncomfortable chair and asked, "So you're telling me you have no idea why you fell out of the sky?" the armoured man shook his head. "Or why you were babbling about sieges and monsters and emperors when we pulled you from the water?"

He shook his head again. Sergio snapped his fingers and the door to the room opened, a sword was brought in, scorched and chipped, but the hilt had been cleaned when the sword had been confiscated. The armoured man reached out with his shackled hands, "My sword! Give it to me!"

Sergio held it just out of reach, holding the blade up to the light and inspecting it, coolly saying, "I thought you didn't anything?"

"I know that's mine because I washed up with it!"

"Well then, may I ask why your sword bears this?" Sergio angled the sword towards the prisoner, tapping on a gold etched emblem on the hilt, a fiery coat of arms. "This is the Agni Royal Seal, carved into Agni steel, care to explain?"

The prisoner shrugged, asking sarcastically, "I don't know, maybe I got it from Agni?"

"A probable story," Sergio said thoughtfully. "I would believe you actually, if the Agni Republic wasn't in ruins, if the secrets of forging Agni steel hadn't been lost for four dozen years. So tell me," Sergio leaned in slightly and narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"

The prisoner's helmet stared back morosely and silently, and Sergio stared back. The door to the room opened again and a woman poked her head out, her long green hair messy and unkempt from days spent working without rest. Ophelia said, "Sergio, there's something you need to see."

"I'm in the middle of something here," he growled in irritation.

"It's important, I insist," Ophelia hissed.

She sounded very insistent, and worried. Sergio sighed and stood, he took the prisoner's sword and nodded to him, "We'll continue this conversation another time."

"I'm looking forward to it."

Sergio followed Ophelia out the room into a well-lit observation room, populated by a few other figures inspecting the prisoner through the one-way mirror. He handed the sword to a guard waiting outside and followed Ophelia, walking hurriedly down the room and out into a hallway.

Sergio noticed her discreetly checking her communicator, a small rectangular glass display, then shoving it back into her pocket. He asked casually, "Farlon again?"

"Farlon," she confirmed. "He says that it isn't healthy to work for three days straight."

Sergio chuckled but didn't say anything about it, instead he asked, "So what's this thing you were so insistent I had to see? I was in the middle of interrogating a spy."

She led him down the hallway, countless paths and doorways leading away, dozens of people bustling about, headed along on their own business in the lower levels of the Survey Office. Sergio nodded to a few of them as he passed, Ophelia sighed, "Do you ever think maybe some of these 'spies they bring in are just some unfortunate folk in the wrong place, wrong time?"

"The innocent don't run," Sergio replied firmly. "Only the guilty. So what was it you wanted to show me?"

He noticed the path they were taking led straight to the Survey Office's main chamber. She seemed to grow more agitated the closer they got. "It's something big, really big, the brains weren't sure what it was at first but it sounded bad when I left to get you. You should really carry your communicator around with you, you know? Captain of the Guard and all?"

"Don't get distracted."

"Sorry, anyways, from the energy displacement they thought it was just another monster, a Class-6 maybe, but the energy levels kept spiking and it was obvious we were looking at something much more powerful."

Sergio furrowed his brows worriedly, Class-6 monsters were the most powerful they'd seen thus far, Duelmex and Felneus for example, anything higher than that was unheard of.

The door to the main Survey Office was a pair of huge sliding doors made of frosted glass. They slid open even before the two of them got near enough, an old man with a flowing white beard and dressed in a simple black robe tied at the waist with a white cloth stepped out. Lorand fixed his eyes on them and ushered them in hurriedly, "Sergio! Quick, ill tidings await."

Sergio stepped into the main chamber, a huge circular area, dimly lit, rows upon rows of curved tables with countless monitors showing rows of incomprehensible data surrounded a round table with a huge, detailed holographic map, dominating the wall was another huge glowing map, this one with a pulsing red dot flitting across it.

Few of the monitors were manned, everyone in the room, perhaps twenty or thirty, were standing under the huge map, watching it with growing worry. Weiss, manning the foremost monitor, declared, "It's moved again! Moving along Amdahl's east coast."

Sergio's eyes widened in shock as he realised the red dot speeding around the map was their new enemy. The crowd parted for him and he walked up to Weiss's side, grabbing his shoulder, asking, "Gods above, what are we looking at!"

"No one knows, but it's energy signature is topping out the charts!" Weiss's eyes tried to follow the red dot as it flew across the map. "It's at Encervis, now it's left Palmyna altogether, Lizeria, Mirvana, Cordelica…"

"What could move this fast?" Lodin, standing in the crowd, asked in shock as the dot flitted away again.

"It's at Ryvern now!" Weiss exclaimed. "Slowing down, closing in on Stokhelna Forest."

Sergio asked, "That's where our garrison is!"

Stokhelna Forest was their only foothold left in Ryvern, if they lost it-

"I'm getting an S.O.S from the Stokhelna Garrison," Weiss held down a button on his keyboard. "Audio's coming through."

A rush of static sounded from the speakers, then a voice, unclear and incoherent through the interference and background noise. A moment passed and it cleared up, the voice clearly said, rather shouted, "-epeat, the garrison is lost! I repeat, the garrison is lost!"

That garrison was the largest they had outside Sama and La Veda, it would take a small army to crush them.

"He's killing everyone! We can't even-"

A scream, so loud the voice disappeared behind it.

"I can't stay here any longer, send all the help you can! He's too fast to-"

A strangled grasp, armour clanging, the crack of breaking bones, and a body colliding against earth.

Silence for a few long seconds, then a sound like a hand grabbing the mike roughly, and a voice, like a furnace of hellfire and brimstone, "Mortals. You will all die."

Then the sound of metal being crushed followed by blaring static.

Sergio stared at the red dot that hovered around Ryvern, feeling the silent fear of everyone in the room. Weiss quietly said, "Transmission lost, only one energy signature left. Do you want me to try and find survivors?"

Sergio sighed, "No, Ryvern is lost."

He turned and folded his arms, raising his eyebrow at the crowd. "What are you all looking at? Back to work! I want eyes on this new enemy! I want to know what he is! What he can do! How to kill him! Go! Go! Go!"

As they turned their backs to him, Sergio grabbed Ophelia and pulled her to one side, whispering, "Get a team ready, I want the best you can find in five days."

"Any criteria?"

"Make sure they're not the sort to die."

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><p>Chapter one is done, I hope you liked it, leave a review on what you think, or leave a review telling me what characters you'd like to feature in the story. If you liked it, great! If you didn't, tell me how I can make it better, please, criticism is the best advice.<p> 


	2. Forest Walks

_Alice_

"So, Alice, how are you today?"

She hummed in response, shifting uncomfortably on the recliner chair, more of a lounge seat. Her hands were folded together awkwardly on her stomach, nervous without the familiar weight of her scythe in her hands. She looked at the ceiling light with half-closed eyes, replying, "Perfectly fine, Doctor, as I have been the past fourteen sessions."

She always hated having to come here, but Sefia herself had ordered her to after her sixth 'incident'. Apparently, losing control of your body and attempting to go on killing sprees was socially unacceptable.

She and the Doctor sat within a homely and cozy office, a bookshelf stood against one wall, landscape paintings of comforting scenery covered the other. The walls, floor and ceiling were made of deep brown planks of wood. The Doctor, a middle aged man with thinning hair hidden under a ridiculous brimmed hat, sat in a worn grey suit next to her.

The Doctor asked calmly, "Do you-"

"Have any homicidal tendencies?" Alice asked mockingly. "No, or murderous thoughts, or violent compulsions. It seems that your therapy has been very effective for me, I feel totally sane and one hundred percent socially functional. Could we make this quick? I've got a ticket for the 1:30 match at the Arena and I don't want to miss it."

"Hmph, very funny," the Doctor gruffly said. "How about the nightmares? Are you still having them?"

Alice tried to hide her cringe at the mention of her dreams. She lied, "No."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow but didn't pursue the issue, instead he pulled out a bunch of white cards with black paint blotches on them.

Alice groaned, "Not the cards, please."

"Yes, the cards." He raised the first one, an incomprehensible series of black shapes and lines. "What do you see?"

She rolled her eyes, muttering to herself, "This is stupid."

"What do you see?" he insisted.

After another bout of eye rolling, Alice looked at the card. "I see a few black paint stains."

The Doctor smiled. "What more do you see?"

Alice narrowed her eyes at the card. "I… I see… myself, in a room, sitting down…"

His eyes widened in interest and he leant forward. "Go on."

"I'm sitting down in the room, next to a man, an old doctor subjecting me to ridiculous therapy."

Alice leant back and smiled to herself as the Doctor sighed exasperatedly. She hummed a little tune to herself contentedly, before there was a tiny buzzing noise and her communicator vibrated in her pocket. As the Doctor face palmed Alice discreetly took out her communicator and saw a message flashed across the glass screen.

'Sender: Ophelia

Selected for mission. Dangerous. Come to Survey Office, will be briefed there. Be quick.'

Alice smiled softly. "You had me at 'Dangerous'."

She slid her communicator back into her pocket and recited, "I was joking, Doctor, I see a house in a sunny field on a bright morning, a young boy is running along a path with a puppy besides him, a corgi specifically."

The Doctor began, "Wha-"

"I'm pretty sure that conforms to what a 'healthy' person sees." She forced out a broad smile and slid off the chair. "I just love these therapy sessions with you, I feel saner every day!"

He didn't even try to stop her, instead he set his cards down on his mahogany desk wearily. "Just remember to come again next week."

She looked back. "Don't worry, I'm looking forward to it."

And with that, Alice promptly left the room and slammed the door.

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><p><em>Farlon<em>

"Why can't they ever send us to any place nice?"

Farlon followed behind a rather disgruntled Rina, her golden cape shockingly conspicuous against the forest's green walls of leaves. The sun came through the roof of branches and leaves in thin beams of dusty light, stretching down the shadowy, leaf paved roads of the forest.

He looked at her quizzically, "A quiet stroll in the woods on a sleepy morning, how much better could it get?"

"Even without the monsters," Rina jumped at a rustling sound behind her as a squirrel scampered down a tree, "I'd much prefer to be back in the city. Greenery doesn't… agree with me."

Farlon didn't say it but he would too. In a cold bar with a colder drink in his hand, relaxing with his friends. But of course, Sergio had to double patrols into the forests around the capital, then double _those _double patrols. It was tiring, to say the least, walking the same route through the forest several times, four times a week.

He spun around at the sound of more rustling, holding his crimson blade a bit closer, uneasily following Rina's loud path through the forest. To calm himself he tried to make some smalltalk, "So… how's the old gang?"

Rina swung her spear and chopped down a row of sprigs, smiling. "Not much has changed, Raydn still spends most of his time at the arena, Ophelia, as you know, still spending too much time working."

"I keep telling her it's not healthy to stay in the Office for days without sleep," Farlon sighed sadly. "And she's been in there a week now. I'm getting worried for her."

"Lunaris is still Lunaris, depressed and lonely, Alyut, when he does leave the office, is-"

She yelped as her foot fell into a rut in the ground. Farlon slid to her side and helped her up, frowning at the pothole, "This wasn't here the last time we came around. Who leaves holes in the ground?"

Rina brushed aside a few of the leaves, "Not holes, tracks."

Her cape splayed out over the forest floor as she bent down, Farlon knelt next to her. She was right. She ran her hand along the edge of the tracks, "Hoof prints, a Unicorn maybe? Pegasi?"

"No, they don't leave tracks this deep," it was more of a small gorge than a track. Farlon narrowed his eyes. "It's something big, extremely heavy."

Rina tried to pick up some of the grass around the tracks and it crumbled between her fingers. "Brittle and charred, something with fire?"

"Definitely." Farlon stood, "It's a few tons at least…" he looked up and slid off the well-trodden dirt path, Rina and him following the deep tracks into the forest. "Four hooves," his sword traced the outline of broken branches and trampled plants. "Tall, three metres at least, a Centaur of some sort maybe."

Rina's voice came from behind, meek and quiet, "It's not a Centaur…"

"No," Farlon agreed. He pulled aside a few bushels of leaves and saw that the tree trunks were lined with pale scars, sap slowly pooling, "The thing has horns, armour too, sharp."

Rina hissed, "How about a double ended halberd? And a head of white hair around yellow eyes?"

"How do you-"

She grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, pulling him down behind a bush in the same motion. Farlon began, "Wha-"

Then he saw what. On the road, where they'd been before, was some great red beast, a monstrous beast with the physique of a giant Centaur, burnt tattooed skin under horned and spurred, gilded scarlet armour, dirty yellow eyes framed by a mask of red and sickly purple horns poking out of a long mane of pale. Fire streamed from halberd in its hands and the base of its armoured hooves.

The thing was huge, even larger than Farlon had expected, its horns scraping the roof of leaves, his hooves leaving the ground tilled and charred. It scanned the ground with its fiery eyes, swung its halberd in great arcs, cutting down whole trees that hung over the road.

Farlon looked at it nervously, they were too close to it, nothing but a few sparse branches and leaves hiding them from it. His red armour and Rina's golden cape and tiara weren't exactly camouflage.

He gripped his sword tightly, "We can't take this thing on! We need to fall back and call for reinforcements."

Rina's eyes had glazed over with a concentrated air. "I recognise him, Kagutsuchi, why would he come so close to the city…"

"Well this Kagutsuchi could slice us in two if he glanced us!" he whispered hurriedly. "We retreat now, contact Sergio, when we have reinforcements we can track him down and-"

"_Sergio's_ instructions," Rina reminded, her anxiety dispelled and replaced with steely determination, "were to patrol the outskirts and dispatch any monsters we find. And that includes this mongrel."

"What happened to wanting to get back to the city?" Farlon hissed.

She readied her spear. "Orders are orders! We can't disobey orders from a commanding officer!"

"It won't matter if we're dead!"

A buzzing noise sounded through the quietness, Farlon and Rina both looked down to their sides as their communicators vibrated. The Kagutsuchi growled lowly and turned to their hiding spot. Farlon sighed, "Oh Gods…"

Rina checked her glass communicator even as the beast blazed towards them. "Oh, it's a group message from Ophelia about a mission, something important. A real shame, I was hoping to catch the afternoon Arena match."

He sighed, first doubled patrols, now a mission. The week kept getting better and better.

Rina rose and flourished her spear, "Well, let's clean up here then. Orders are orders."

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><p><em>The Prisoner<em>

His eyes felt heavy, the light of the single bulb in the grey ceiling painful to his vision. The room's shadowy corners seemed to grow darker as he watched.

His hands, gauntlets of black metal, scorched and scored with scars from battle. He wrung the thin cuffs around them, the bonds stronger and heavier than they seemed.

He could see it when he closed his eyes, visions, dreams, memories, strange beasts, satin curtains, rain of blood, rain of ash, and fire, always fire.

His eyes began to droop, his arms began to sink, his back began to bend in the metal chair and he hunched over the plain metal table as sleep's fangs sunk into him.

_Archers! Draw! _

_ Pacing along the battlements, his sword drawn and flourished, the men along the city walls armoured in black as he was. Fiery torches and braziers spanned the length of the defences, glowing like fireflies into the distance. Wood groaned as bows were nocked and strings stretched. The sky was dark and glowed with a deep red depth where the moon was, countless horned beasts surrounding the city on all sides. He held his breath, his hand clenched in the air overhead. Then he pointed his open hand forward. _

_ Fire!_

Eyes forced themselves open, he was thrown back into the chair as if by someone else, he wrung his metal fingers nervously, _Don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep. _

The door to the room opened, the man in the blue coat didn't come, this time it was the girl, the one with green hair. She sat in the chair across from him, her eyes just as tired as his but still with a hint of resolution behind them.

She smiled at him, "So, I heard you haven't been very cooperative with my partner?"

He narrowed his eyes behind his visor. "I want my sword back."

She smiled softly again, "And you'll have it, you have my word. But first, we need to know who you are. Where did you get your sword? Who forged it for you?"

Her voice was beguiling to him, soft and reassuring. He furrowed his brows, "I… I don't know, I should but I don't."

The girl nodded understandingly. "What do you know of the Agni Republic? Do you hail from there? And what of the former Emperor?"

His eyes narrowed again, the questions drawing him from his trust. "You presume much, and ask proud questions, girl."

That last title seemed to make her cringe. He smiled at the effect.

"What makes you think I'm not crazy? Your colleague said it himself, the Agni Republic is gone, so it seems."

A buzzing sound, the girl's eyes looked away and she pulled a glass screen out of her pocket. She read a message flashed across its front before pushing it back in. The prisoner raised an eyebrow under his helmet. "A previous engagement?"

"A match at the Arena actually, but work does not allow for such comforts." She folded her hands on top of the table. "I realised that we've talked for such a time and I still don't know your name."

"And I've no care to share it with my interrogator."

Her smile didn't waver. "My name is Ophelia."

He watched her warily, but if they were telling the truth, if Agni had somehow fallen fifty years ago, then what use would his name be of to them?

"You may address me as Agni."


End file.
